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April 11: Iraq War Poet to Speak on Campus

Event Details

Date:
April 10, 2012

Times:
7 p.m.

Location:
Kresge Recital Hall

Ticket Info:
Free and open to the public.

Brian Turner, a veteran of the Iraq War and acclaimed poet, will share his work and reflect on his life experiences during "An Evening With Brian Turner" at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 11, in Kresge Recital Hall. The discussion is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow.

Turner joined the U.S. army when he was almost 30 years old and served for seven years. Beginning in November 2003, he was an infantry team leader in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

His book, "Here, Bullet," is an unflinching reflection of his war-time experiences. One poem, "Eulogy," was written to memorialize a soldier in his platoon who took his own life.

Turner's award-winning poetry has been published in many prestigious literary journals and he is the recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Poetry, an Amy Lowell Travelling Scholarship, and he has been shortlisted for the coveted T.S. Eliot Prize in England. He has made appearances on National Public Radio, the BBC, RTÉ in Ireland, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and PBS. He has been a correspondent with National Geographic and he has also addressed Westpoint, the Air Force Academy, and the Naval Academy at Annapolis. When not delivering poetry readings around the world, Turner directs the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College. Both of his books, "Here, Bullet" (2006) and "Phantom Noise" (2010), explore what it means to be a soldier and a human being during a time of war.